by Jack Lacey
‘The younger generation need to learn that. That sometimes there’s no quick fix. The world’s a mess. Get over it. The best thing you can do sometimes is take care of your own backyard…’
‘He wants you back, Chrissie...seriously,’ I said interrupting, thinking how her move down to Kentucky had a permanent sound to it.
For a moment there was an awkward silence. For a second she looked flustered.
‘Yeah, I’m sure he does. But if I went back, would he be there when I got home? No...he’d be out on yet another shift that he’s agreed to do, to cover some colleague who’s decided to spend more time with his wife because they’ve put their marriage first for once.’
I listened patiently, wanting to steer the conversation back to Ethan, but not wanting to appear rude so as to rile her. She was a woman on the warpath after all...
‘Look, I’m serious. I talked to Tug at your place. He’s lost without you. He really is...’
‘He told you that?’
‘Yes he did.’
‘Are we talking about the same guy here?’ she said, offering a cynical laugh.
‘Came out with it plain and simple, Chrissie,’ Nancy added.
‘Shoot, takes a stranger to get the old dinosaur to open up, don’t’ it.’
‘And is there anything else you can think of that might help track Olivia and Ethan down, somewhere else that they might be holed up?’ I pressed.
‘Can’t think of anywhere, sorry. Best thing you can do is check to see if they’ve been brought in downtown. I’d try the city police first.’
I touched Nancy’s arm lightly, signalling it was time to leave.
‘Thanks for your time Chrissie…and ring him, huh?’
‘Sure thang,’ she said with a shrug.
At the door of the waiting room she called out to us.
‘Hey…’
I turned and noticed her eyes had glazed over ever so slightly.
‘Might just do that, you know. Might just do that…’
*
It was a short walk from the hospital to the main police station on East Street. At the door I pulled back suddenly and beckoned Nancy closer.
‘Look, can you go in alone? Call me paranoid, but I don’t want to give any I.D in there, or get clocked on CCTV in case my face is on some national database. Here’s Olivia’s photo...’
‘Sure,’ she said studying it for a second.
I watched her walk up the steps enjoying the view, then waited a good half an hour in the rain before she returned stony-faced.
‘Nothing.’
‘Damn it...’ I said, feeling like I’d arrived at yet another dead-end.
‘The officer I spoke to even rang the sheriff’s office a few blocks over to see if they’d heard anything. They haven’t...’
Nancy reached out for my hand and squeezed. For a while we walked in silence, staring at the moon rising above the city sprawl.
‘Come on, let’s go back to my place, eat, get some sleep, then forge a new plan in the morning.’
‘What about the Street-Level Café?’ I said suddenly, having forgotten all about it, ‘there might be someone over there who might have heard of something?’
‘That’ll be closed now, Blake. It’s late...’ she said almost apologetically. ‘Come on, there’s nothing more we can do tonight...Let’s rest up.’
I knew she was right, but knew that doing nothing wouldn’t cure my restlessness either. I felt like I was getting close now, tantalizingly so, and just needed that extra slice of luck, that bit of timing, that would lead me straight to her and Ethan walking up the street hand in hand.
That’s if she hadn’t got her head blown off already by one of Corrigan’s men...I shook my head feeling frustrated, as well as agitated at what they intended to do. In the morning I would head over to this cafe and try and pick up a fresh lead, then think of a new plan of action if that drew a blank too. Something had to give soon. Something.
‘You got coffee?’ I said eventually.
‘The best Kentucky can offer, Blake. Hell, are you going to tell me what your blessed first name is, for god’s sake?’
I got in the truck and slammed the door.
‘Nope.’
*
I jumped in the shower while Nancy made some fresh coffee and threw in a microwaved Chinese for both of us to eat. When I came downstairs the resulting aroma was the best thing I’d ever smelt.
‘Hey, you feel better? You were kinda tense back at the police station.’
‘I had a bad feeling before I took the job on, and now it’s getting worse the longer I hang around here. This Corrigan guy is pretty heavy handed from what I’ve experienced already, and if for whatever reason, Olivia and Ethan have trod on the wrong toes, or are planning to again, they’re going to get stamped on big time in return.
I ran a hand over my face and sighed, feeling frustrated.
‘I just hope I can get to them before he does, if that’s the case.’
Nancy reached out and laid a hand over mine and smiled. I didn’t respond. My mind was in a fog.
‘Corrigan owns so many properties and offices too...they really could be anywhere.’
‘They’ll either pick the one with the least security, or the one with the highest profile depending on how brave they’re feeling,’ I tendered.
‘Well Corrigan’s offices in Lexington would certainly fit the bill, as well as his ranch out of town. The latter though would have a lot of security. He breeds a lot of his expensive horses there.’
‘Which means, that they’ll probably pick his offices, dangle some protest banner from the roof, or chain themselves to the desks so that they can interrupt his work and make some local headlines.’
‘Look, food’s ready,’ she said, sliding a large bowl of Chow Mein along the worktop to where I was sat. ‘Eat…’
I forced a smile.
‘It’s not much, as I haven’t been here all week, but it’s something I suppose.’
I worked my way through it ravenously, thinking about the pair’s intended plans. If the same sort of guys who’d tortured me back in the forest, had managed to get their hands on Olivia already, I’d hate to think what she’d be subjected to.
I shuddered and reached for the mug of coffee to wash down some of the noodles. Nancy leaned over and switched on an archaic television opposite then pulled up a stool next to me as if realizing conversation was going to be hard.
When the picture finally flickered on and stilled, the late-night news appeared to be in full flow. I stared at it mindlessly trying to enjoy the hot food and refreshment, trying to stop being so pessimistic, until my attention was drawn to some footage of an enormous ranch from the air. The camera shot changed suddenly and panned to a wall close up covered in defiant language, pronouncing: ‘SAVE BLACK MOUNTAIN!’
I sat bolt upright and tensed as the presenter continued with the related news story. ‘And finally…the home of powerful mining magnet, Lyle Corrigan, was broken into earlier and his property damaged, including this graffiti sprayed over his stable block. Police are appealing for anyone with information about the attack on the Red Rose Stud to come forward and help them with their investigations. And now, the weather...’
We looked at each other in shock.
‘Well, now we know what they’ve been up to,’ Nancy said switching off the T.V.
‘They must be lying low somewhere.’
‘God, that could be anywhere. They could be a million miles away by now. Jesus!’ I shouted, slamming my hand down on the worktop in frustration.
Nancy’s phone rang. I watched as the voice relayed the bad news on the other end and the resulting horror painted on her face as the reality of what had been said, sunk in. Finally she put her cell down and shook her head slowly as she informed me of what had just been revealed.
‘That was Chrissie. They’ve found Ethan in what was left of his car and brought him in.’
‘You serious?’
�
�Yes...and he’s dead.’
I absorbed the words and tried to remain calm.
‘Did she say anything about Olivia?’
‘No.’
‘Did he crash?’
‘On some road just outside Lexington, on the way to Ver-sailles. Looks like it was close to Corrigan’s ranch. Probably happened as they were getting away... They found his and Phil’s body at the scene.’
Nancy stood up and cleared the bowls.
‘I think we should head back to the hospital, Blake. Chrissie will be distraught. Ethan’s her nephew...’
‘Let’s do it,’ I said agreeing, hoping that when we got there she might be able to tell us more about Olivia’s whereabouts too. And an alive Olivia at that...
*
When we finally found Chrissie in the hospital, she’d just come out from the morgue where she’d been identifying Ethan’s body. Her face was ashen.
I’m so sorry,’ Nancy said, embracing her in the corridor.
‘I told him he was going to get himself into trouble. The stupid…’
She started to sob. Some of the tears ran down her face and dampened Nancy’s shoulder. After a minute or so, she pulled away, took a deep breath then blew her nose.
‘They reckoned they crashed at high speed while being chased from the scene. The car evidently overturned and caught fire. A passer-by managed to pull them out, but they’d both sustained extensive head injuries and were dead by the time the police turned up.’
She looked at me solemnly.
‘The girl wasn’t with him by the way...’
I exhaled heavily with relief.
‘Are you going to be okay?’ Nancy asked softly.
‘Yeah, I rung Tug. He’s gunna drive down in the morning. Wonders will never cease.’
‘That’s great,’ Nancy said trying to be positive.
I fetched some drinks then managed to pull Nancy close for a second as a doctor took Chrissie to one side.
‘Look, I’m going to head over to the crash site and check things out, go and see if Olivia isn’t hiding somewhere half-dead. You wanna come?’
‘No, best I stay here and keep Chrissie company.’
‘I’ll head back to yours after I’ve done my search then.’
‘Blake…be careful.’
I saw the concern in her face and offered a reassuring smile, then walked out of the door, already thinking about what I was going to do before I got there.
If Olivia had gone with Ethan, then she could be lying out there somewhere seriously injured, or at the very least be cowering all alone in the dark, just having seen her boyfriend killed in front of her very eyes.
What sort of mind-set would an eighteen year old be in after witnessing something like that? And more importantly, would she be able to hold it together and find her way back to safety without falling into the hands of the police or Corrigan’s heavies...
I sucked some air through my teeth, then jumped in the pick-up hoping Olivia wasn’t lying on a cold slab like Ethan now was, then visualized Laura’s face for a moment staring back at me in the water in France, thinking how for all our sakes, that the banker’s daughter just had to be alive still...
Chapter Twenty-Two
‘the compound’
The hospital faded into the distance as I joined highway Four, then the Sixty, which I followed for a while until I saw signs for Versailles. A few minutes later I’d turned right onto Pisgah Pike, then onto Sugar Hill Rise where the crash had supposedly taken place, then travelled a mile or so up the long winding road until I saw flashing lights.
I eased my foot off the accelerator, fearing a checkpoint may have been set up to quiz potential eye witnesses, then saw the white squad car of Lexington City Police parked up on the verge, its roof lights merging with those of a long flatbed truck, as it winched the burnt-out shell of a brown Nissan 200 onto its back.
Anxious to get a closer look, I edged the car forwards. A fresh-faced deputy in an immaculate blue uniform waved me through, one thumb wedge in his belt as if disinterested with his task. I drove on, eyes looking straight-ahead so as not to arouse suspicion, then continued at a steady speed until I was finally out of sight.
A half-mile down the road I pulled up myself, stepped out of the car, and slipped through the rails into the darkness, then jogged back to the crash site, remaining at a safe distance so as not to be seen.
I scanned the area methodically looking for the girl, as the alternating lights danced across the field in eerie sporadic scarlet and blue flashes.
‘Olivia…’ I called out softly, weaving my way across the open expanse in a semi-crouch. ‘Olivia…’ I called again a little louder, expecting to see her body slumped somewhere on the ground.
After a good ten minutes of searching I withdrew, then crossed the road and did the same the other side. Finding nothing again, I wandered back feeling strangely relieved, staring out across the rolling pastures into the abject darkness, then over at the enormous astrobellum mansion in the distance lit up like a spaceship.
God, I hoped Olivia hadn’t joined the others on their little suicide mission. And if she had, that she hadn’t been caught by Corrigan and was now undergoing some ‘private’ interrogation at his own behest.
I felt my stomach turn at the idea, then thought it was more likely that she was just holed up somewhere with friends, anxiously awaiting her boyfriend’s safe return.
After all, she was only eighteen, and while she had a lot of pluck about her, she was still relatively young for hard-core activism. Would Ethan have put her at risk involving her in such a dangerous action? I hoped not. But then again, maybe that was just wishful thinking right now. I’d been wrong about a lot of things concerning the job already...
I ran back to the truck, jumped in then let it run at idle for a few minutes deep in thought, before turning around in some grandiose ranch entrance wondering if it was actually the tycoon’s.
I dabbed the brake and stared at the massive stone pillars towering above me, then at the ferocious-looking horses on top, their hooves kicking out in the air as if guarding the black, wrought iron gates below, warning the uninitiated to enter with caution.
I shifted my gaze and clocked a CCTV camera positioned in a nearby tree, making sure any unexpected guests were vetted before entry, then read the italic lettering welded into the centre of the bars.
‘The Red Rose Stud...’
It was Corrigan’s ranch, and if my sense of direction was right, then it was the same creepy building I’d seen lit up in the distance.
‘That’s just beautiful...’
Getting more anxious again, I edged back onto the road and returned the way I’d come. As soon as I could make out lights again, I pulled over and killed my own. If I could just get a closer look at the Nissan, see if there was something inside of Olivia’s, like a hairband or a phone, or even a shoe that may have been dropped during the chaos, then I’d know for sure if she’d been in the vehicle.
If she hadn’t, then I could relax and track her down through some of the other activists, or via Chrissie when she surfaced again at her house. Maybe then, things wouldn’t be looking so bad...
Eventually the squad car pulled away. A few minutes later the flatbed truck followed in the same direction. I eased out slowly and remained at a discreet distance, then re-joined highway Sixty where I melted back into the traffic, staying in eye contact with the now lone truck as it travelled north, then west, away from the centre of Lexington through some quiet suburbs, before finally heading back out into Bluegrass country.
Perplexed, I wondered if the Nissan was being taken to some junkyard way out of town, then if the police had carried out a proper forensic. They’d certainly done it in double time if they had. There was no sign of any other investigators, no police tape nor fuss…Something wasn’t right about it, I could feel it…
We continued for a while, driving further out into the countryside until we arrived at a dead-end town with a small indu
strial complex tacked onto its outskirts. I slowed down as the truck took a sharp turn suddenly, gave it a second then followed myself. Directly ahead was a huge floodlit compound...
I stared at the imposing perimeter wall surrounding the site and decided to hang back, feeling more and more uneasy. At the entrance, the flatbed pulled up to a security hut and waited for a moment. A minute later, two burly guards came out and appeared to check some papers, then headed back in and operated the gates electronically.
I ran a hand over my face feeling tired, feeling an increasing sense of foreboding. The gates were just as high as the perimeter wall...I needed to find another way in if I was going to check out the Nissan. Getting passed two guards, security cameras and a gate with razor wire unseen was going to be damn near impossible...
I eased the pick-up out with its lights off then pulled down a side-road to my left, running behind what looked like abandoned warehouses. Halfway along, I parked up next to some bins in the dark, slipped through a broken section in the fence, then ran across an overgrown parking lot, down an alleyway littered with glass and garbage, until reaching some thick undergrowth, which seemed to skirt the junkyard wall in both directions.
I stared up at the pile of broken cars, just about discernible above the lip of the wall then headed anti-clockwise, eventually breaking out onto some scrubland, before reaching a more suburban area with a second-hand car dealership located at its edge.
I peered through the meshwork fence barring my way, then at the flat roof of the static in the far corner of the plot, nestled against the perimeter wall. With little a bit of luck, I could jump onto the office roof and haul myself up onto the junkyard wall. Then, if there was something to climb down onto the other side, I was in...
I turned and headed up an access road, keeping to the shadows as best I could, then ran passed a massive warehouse ensconced in darkness, where the sound of machinery echoed out eerily from inside. Just beyond it, I found another alleyway, which eventually led me back to the dealership, a good fifty to sixty metres over from where I’d previously stood.
